50 illustrations by John Tenniel. Red hardcover with gilt trim and all page edges gilt. Published by Macmillan & Co. 1872. Twenty first thousand. (First edition but later printing). Publisher’s advertisements at the back.

It’s surprising how reasonably you can pick up early Looking Glass printings. There are several of these on abebooks for around the 25-30 quid mark. You wouldn’t get a Wonderland for that…

Having said that, this is very precious to me- it’s my oldest book and was given as an anonymous Christmas present. Although I have a shrewd idea who from…

When two young twin girls are pulled into another dimension their purity will not be enough to save them. Lost, scared and unable to escape, the girls must find ways to adapt as they eventually realize that being raised by madness itself isn’t all that bad…
A local hero has somehow been thrown into insanity as he attempts to adapt to a world intent on taking his mind. But he soon realizes that there is only way to adapt to the un-adaptable…
Before the horror that tore a family apart, there was a child named Alice who entered a foreign world only to return forever changed. Her sanity would be taken, but her life would not be wasted. Witness the story of the girl who lost everything only to become an unlikely hero…
A scientist discovers a portal to another realm but his obsession proves much more costly than he ever could have imagined.
Four incredible tales straight from a horror-filled realm unlike no other. Enter a place where madness and terror reign supreme…. Enter the world of WONDERLAND!

Eileen’s Adventures in Wordland: The Life Story of Our Word Friends by Zillah K. Macdonald.

Illustrations by Stuart Hay (1889-1969), an American cartoonist, illustrator and architect.

Published by Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1920.

Foreward:

“This is the story of a little girl who visited the Land behind the Dictionary and found out for herself that Words are alive. She had never felt friendly toward the Dictionary before, and she did not even know that she had anything to do with whether Words lived or died, but the minute she found herself at the top of the escalator in Wordland, with its crowds of lively little Word People, she began to believe that Words are truly one of the most interesting things in the world. During her exciting adventures she met the Words who live in the English Wordland; plain, strong Anglo-Saxon Words, French Aristocrat Words who came over with William the Conqueror, the old Giant Greek and Latin Words, foreign Words from every land who have been adopted by Mother English Language, and the happy-go-lucky slang Words who live in a gipsy camp outside of Dictionary Town. She found out that Words are born when we begin using them and die when we stop using them; that many Words in the beginning did not mean at all what we have made them mean, and that many have life stories as fascinating as fairy tales.”

Published by William Blackwood and Sons, 1877. Hardback, second edition.

Charles Doyle was a civil servant, but also worked as an illustrator throughout his life. As well as Our Trip to Blunderland, he contributed illustrations to the Illustrated Times, London Society, and The Graphic.

He was the father of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

The book describes the Blunderland adventures of three little boys, and starts:

Norval, Jaques, and Ranulf) had been reading all about Alice, and the strange, funny things she saw and did when fast asleep.

” I wonder,” said Jaques, ” if I could ever get to sleep like her, so as to walk through looking-glasses, and that sort of thing, without breaking them or coming up against the wall ! ”

” Oh,” said Ranulf, ” wouldn’t it be nice if we could ! only the funniest thing is how she got through the wall. I don’t see how being asleep would help her to do that.”

Norval, the eldest, broke in ” Oh, you big stupid! she didn’t go through it; she only thought she did.”

” Well, then,” said Jaques, ” I want to think it too. Last night when I was in bed I tried to go to sleep, and to get through the wall ; but when I fell asleep I forgot all about it, and dreamed that I was sick, and that the doctor gave me a big glass of something horrid.”

” Ah, but,” said Norval, ” that was because you tried. Alice didn’t try, you know. She knew nothing about being asleep till she woke up.”

Ranulf looked very wise, although he was the smallest, and said, “Perhaps if Alice was here, she would tell us how to do it.”

” Of course I would,” said a sweet voice behind them ; and, turning round, who should they see but little Alice herself, looking exactly as she does on page 35, where she is getting her thimble from the Dodo.

Alice in the Magic Garden by Moses David (also known as David Brandt Berg.) He was the founder and leader of the cult formerly called The Children of God, but now known as “The Family International”.

Published by The Children of God in 1974.

Religious pamphlet using Alice imagery, promoting what is a rather dodgy cult, according to most sources. Allegations made against the organisation include abduction and physical and sexual abuse.

Illustrations signed “Eman Artist”, which is apparently a pseudonym for Hugo Westphal, who was expelled from the ‘family’ after repeated accusations of severe physical abuse against women and children.

River and Joaquin Phoenix were child members of the cult from 1972–1978. River Phoenix, who died of a drug overdose in 1993, has been quoted as saying that “they’re ruining people’s lives”.

Illustrated by Rea Irvin, who was the first art editor of the New Yorker.

Published by The Dial Press, Lincoln Mac Veagh, 1928. Hardback, no dust jacket.

Written as a parody of social and political foibles: Alice arrives in the Delighted States, via the stem of a drinking glass. She meets Rotarians, to whom she refuses to make a speech- the Rotarian next to commenting “That comes from being too subjunctive and makes the situation tense.”

She meets Twaddle-dum and Twiddle-dee, one labeled H. L. M. and the other, G. J. N. A slip of paper in my copy reveals that these two are Henry L. Mencken (American journalist, essayist and critic) and George Jean Nathan (an American critic).

Later Alice begins to grow, and becomes much too large for her clothes- causing a case of Indecent Exposure. She goes to court where the lawyers of the Persecution and Pretense call ‘witlesses’ and select a jury full of frightened white rabbits, parrots, and a sleepy possum. The judge is wrapped up in red tape. A ‘very cross examination’ is interrupted by news: PRIZE BEAUTY SLAYS LOVE MATE WITH ICE PICK AFTER JAZZ PARTY IN RICH NEST, and Alice’s trial is over- Alice is advised to go into vaudeville, or write her Life Story. She ends up in Washington with elephants, donkeys and Uncle Sam, and then awakes in her father’s chair.